Jean Genet 19 December — 15 April was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing. After the death of his foster mother, Genet was placed with an elderly couple but remained with them less than two years.
On one occasion he squandered a considerable sum of money, which they had entrusted him for delivery elsewhere, on a visit to a local fair.
For this and other misdemeanors, including repeated acts of vagrancy, he was sent at the age of 15 to Mettray Penal Colony where he was detained between 2 September and 1 March In The Miracle of the Rose , he gives an account of this period of detention, which ended at the age of 18 when he joined the Foreign Legion. After returning to Paris, France in , Genet was in and out of prison through a series of arrests for theft, use of false papers, vagabondage, lewd acts and other offenses.
In Paris, Genet sought out and introduced himself to Jean Cocteau, who was impressed by his writing. Genet would never return to prison. By Genet had completed five novels, three plays and numerous poems, many controversial for their explicit and often deliberately provocative portrayal of homosexuality and criminality. During this time he became emotionally attached to Abdallah, a tightrope walker. From the late s, starting with an homage to Daniel Cohn-Bendit after the events of May , Genet became politically active.
He participated in demonstrations drawing attention to the living conditions of immigrants in France. In the Black Panthers invited him to the USA, where he stayed for three months giving lectures, attending the trial of their leader, Huey Newton, and publishing articles in their journals.
